Tag: STEM

This past Saturday, our NSBE scholars attended the NSBE Region 6 Fall Regional Conference. The entire day was jam packed with lots of workshops, competitions, and activities. More importantly, our scholars got to witness the vastness of the NSBE organization. Hundreds of elementary, middle, and high school scholars joined with collegiate and professional members in the conference theme: Ignite. Imagine. Innovate.

Our scholars even participated in two of the Pre-Collegiate Initiative competitions: the Science Bowl Olympiad and Math Counts. In the Science Bowl Olympiad, we had scholars on all three of the top teams, and in Math Counts, our scholars took 1st and 3rd place!!! Here are some pictures from our FRC exeperience.

Benjamin Banneker was born a free man in Maryland on November 9, 1731, and lived as a land-owning farmer of modest means. So, how did Benjamin Banneker become a historical figure? Banneker’s invention of the clock propelled his reputation.

Sometime in the early 1750s, Banneker borrowed a pocket watch from a wealthy acquaintance, took the watch apart, and studied its components and inner workings. He made a drawing of each component, then reassembled the watch and returned it, fully functioning, to its owner. From his drawings, Banneker then proceeded to carve, out of wood, enlarged replicas of each part. Calculating the proper number of teeth for each gear and the necessary relationships between the gears, he completed construction of a working wooden clock in 1753. The clock was amazingly precise. As the result of the attention his self-made clock received, Banneker was able to start up his own watch and clock repair business.

Banneker’s clock kept accurate time and struck the hours for over 50 years until it was destroyed along with most of Banneker’s other belongings in a mysterious house fire that took place on the day of Banneker’s funeral. Benjamin Banneker has been credited for making the first clock to be built completely in America.

In yesterday’s post, we learned more about Banneker’s Almanac. Even more exciting is the fact that he used his notoriety as the publisher of an Almanac to advocate for American slaves!

In 1791, Thomas, who was then Secretary of State, a white supremacist, and a slave owner, pronounced Blacks mathematically inferior. On August 19, 1791, in response to Jefferson’s declaration of mathematical inferiority, Banneker sent Jefferson a copy of his almanac, along with a twelve-page letter requesting aid in improving the lot of American Blacks. In his letter, Banneker proclaimed that, by sending him the Almanac, he was “unexpectedly and unavoidably led” to develop a discourse on race and rights.

Banneker made it a point to “freely and cheerfully acknowledge, that I am of the African race.” Though not himself a slave, Banneker encouraged Jefferson to accept “the indispensable duty of those who maintain for themselves the rights of human nature,” by ending the “state of tyrannical thraldom, and inhuman captivity, to which too many of my brethren are doomed.” (In case you need to look this word up like I did, “thraldom” means a state of control or bondage to an owner or master.)

Appealing to Jefferson’s “measurably friendly and well-disposed” attitude toward blacks, Banneker presumed that he would “readily embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions which so generally prevail with respect to us.”

After acknowledging that by writing to Jefferson he was taking “a liberty which seemed to me scarcely allowable,” considering “the almost general prejudice and prepossession which is so prevalent in the world against those of my complexion,” Banneker launched into a critical response to Jefferson’s published ideas about the inferiority of blacks.

With restrained passion, Banneker chided Jefferson and other framers of the Declaration of Independence for the hypocrisy “in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.” Citing Jefferson’s own words from the Declaration — the “self-evident” truth “that all men are created equal” — Banneker challenged Jefferson and his fellows “to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed with respect to” African Americans.

Click here to read the full text of his historic letter of resistance!

An almanac is an annual publication that includes all sorts of important dates and statistical information such as astronomical data and tide tables. Flipping through an almanac, you’ll be amazed to find tons of interesting information, such as weather predictions, the best dates for planting crops, when the sun will rise and set, the dates of eclipses and the times of tides. Almanacs even include such miscellaneous information as world records, population statistics, recipes, holiday trivia and predictions about trends in fashion, food, home decoration, technology and lifestyle for the upcoming year.

The oldest almanac in North America — The Old Farmer’s Almanac — has been published annually since 1792. However, that wasn’t the only almanac printed in 1792. In that same year, Benjamin Banneker published his first of six annual Farmers’ Almanacs. Banneker’s almanacs included information on medicines and medical treatment, and listed tides, astronomical information, and eclipses, all calculated by Banneker himself.

Imagine: Nearly 100 years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, Benjamin Banneker was publishing an almanac full of data and statistics based on his own calculations! Absolutely remarkable!!! Banneker’s Almanac’s were compared favorable with Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richards’s Almanac. However, in 1802 he stopped publishing his Almanac due to poor sales.

Banneker lived for four years after his almanacs discontinued. He published a treatise on bees, did a mathematical study on the cycle of the seventeen-year locust, and became a pamphleteer for the anti-slavery movement. He continued scientific studies by night and walked his land by day…keeping his garden along the way. He hosted many distinguished scientists and artists of his day, and his visitors commented on his intelligence and on his knowledge of everything of importance that was happening in the country. As always, he remained precise and reflective in his conversations with others.

His last walk (with a friend) came on October 9, 1806, when he complained of being ill and went home to rest on his couch. He died later that day.

Each year, during the week of November 9th, Americans celebrate “Benjamin Banneker Week” to honor the contributions of this great mathematician. For many students, mathematics is viewed as a faceless, and sometimes meaningless, subject, but learning more about the men and women who have shaped mathematics can inspire generations. Banneker is one such individual.

Born outside of Baltimore, Maryland on November 9, 1731, Benjamin Banneker was born a free black and was generally self-taught through most of his young adult life. Banneker began to display his brilliance as an engineer while he was a young man. First, he loved to solve puzzles and later he invented the the first (mathematically perfect) clock, which was made entirely of hand carved wooden parts. This clock kept accurate time for decades.

Banneker’s love for learning encouraged him to begin studying astronomy and advanced mathematics from sets of books loaned to him by a neighbor. As a result of these studies, he was able to predict solar and lunar eclipses and became the author of an internationally published almanac. Then, Banneker used his celebrity for the good of Black people: the international recognition of his almanac gave Banneker a platform to fight for the abolishment of slavery. He famously composed a letter addressed to Thomas Jefferson, in which he insisted black Americans possess the same intellectual ability and should be afforded the same opportunities as white Americans. This letter led to an ongoing correspondence between the two men, and led to Banneker receiving a considerable amount of support by abolitionist groups in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Banneker was also selected to assist Major Pierre L’Enfant to survey and develop the city plans for our nation’s capital, which was later named the District of Columbia. After L’Enfant abruptly quit the project, Benjamin Banneker was able to reproduce the plans – from memory – for the entire city in just 2 days. These plans provided the layout for the streets, buildings, and monuments that still exist in Washington D.C.

Visit the Benjamin Banneker Day website (www.benjaminbannekerday.weebly.com) to learn more about Benjamin Banneker, and how you and your family can participate in this year’s celebration.

Last week was DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP WEEK!!!

Digital Citizenship is a concept that helps parents and educators understand what children should know and understand in order to use technology appropriately. Not only is it a way to prepare children for a society full of technology, but digital citizenship can also insure that your child creates a digital footprint that can be leveraged for college and career success.

Common Sense is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. They provide unbiased information, trusted advice, and innovative tools to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in all kids’ lives. The organization has three web portals depending on your point of view: Common Sense for Parents; Common Sense for Educators; and Common Sense for Advocates. Below is just a sampling of some of the tools you can find on these sites. Try them…they are great resources to help our scholars become responsible digital citizens!

Device-Free-Dinner Toolkit. Here are some great tools that you can use to get those devices turned off during dinner so you can have some quality family time.

Social Media Primer. Here is a great resource for learning how to navigate…and how to help your child navigate….social media platforms.

Digital Dilemmas. Here are some fictitious scenarios, based on real-life stories, to spark a conversation at home with your children about digital citizenship.

Parent Q&As. Here is a site that contains some wonderful Q&As from parents–providing guidance and advice about how to manage your child’s digital citizenship.

Video Game Reviews. This is one of the best resources I’ve seen on how to determine if the video game your child wants to play is right for him/her.

Family Media Agreements. Below are links to grade-level agreements you can use to raise good digital citizens.